Why, when this team was truly terrible, were people so quick to insist that they under-achieved terribly, even when playing .500? And now that they have much greater talent assembled, and are clearly under-achieving, it's so easy to suggest that they are just terrible?

They've played terrible, and they've played nearly great, and they've played everything inbetween. If they are just going to be defined as terrible, then something is drastically wrong somewhere.